The Puzzle Box
by Ydarissep
Summary: After finding a mysterious puzzle box in the ruins of Azjol'Nerub, the death knight Alexander Vington accidentally unleashes its prisoner upon the world.
1. The Discovery

**The Puzzle Box**

Part One: The Discovery

"You know not what you are doing," said a young but strong voice.

"I know more than you do," said another voice, equally strong but sounding a tad older.

Within the beautiful wilderness of Northrend, there laid a particular area known by the name of Dragonblight. This region was a snow-covered endless steppe; a few ravines there, some bare trees here. However, on the eastern segment of this zone, there was a large sinkhole in the shadow of a town of the Taunka, natives to the north. The town had long-since been burned, pillaged and plundered by the Nerubians, a race of spider-like beasts.

"You cannot go there, Alexander," said the younger voice. "It is far too dangerous!" A young man dressed in icy blue robes lined with fur stepped in front of the man in question. His hair was gold and tied back in a pony-tail, his skin pale as a ghost because of the cold and lack of sunlight.

"I'm going to go, and you will not stop me." Another man stepped forward, clad in the heavy armor of the Scourgeborne. Shoulderpads curled out from the lower and upper segments, connected by an azure glass-like material. The rest draped his form, the design making it seem as if the armor was made from bone and some other sort of metal. Skull designs were on the palms and bulkier part of his gauntlets with eyes of an azure gemstone. His hips held the same designs under his two axes, which were curved and an icy-blue color. Where the blades met the hilts, there was a crescent moon on both sides of the axes. His face carried signs of either middle-age of great amounts of pressure and stress, but they still showed some liveliness despite the small wrinkles. He had a moustache which reached from his sideburns to his upper lip. His hair was slicked back and covered over his ears, two bundles falling over his chest and tied with black ribbons to match his jet-black hair. Over his eyes and under bushy eyebrows was a pair of goggles of the same azure-glass that held the shoulderpad layers together and gears around each of the lenses which seemed to adjust to their wearer. Over his back and chest was a tabard of a black sword pointing down on a navy blue background. His final piece of this set was a heavy gun draped over his back – the weapon was truly menacing as it was so bulky and quite powerful.

"Alexander, please!" The younger man was pleading and obviously saddened. "At least wait for some of the elves to be ready to accompany you!"

"No," was all the armored man, Alexander, would give. He began walking again, sidestepping the other and walking his way down the path. "Don't worry; I'll be back before nightfall." At that, Alexander offered a small wave behind his back as he continued on.

It took him an hour alone to get to where he wanted to be: the giant sinkholes. The very ones which lead into the subterranean kingdoms of Ahn'Kahet and Azjol'Nerub. Both were key places in the Nerubian world, the former being their capital (at least as deduced by outsiders). But Alexander's goal was not to charge in and start killing like any other foolhardy person would do. No, his mission was a personal one: to find fragments to be used in archaeological discoveries. He had a personal discovery to finish – a puzzle box of such amazing and curious nature. Right off the bat, he found two fragments he would require and was in the process of finding the third.

This puzzle box was an ancient thing, buried away, recovered, and then shattered across the northern continent so that nobody would attempt to find it again. Unfortunately, the tale that was told about it was written and told in Nerubian, so nobody knew its true power.

"Finally!" Alexander laughed in triumph, reaching onto his belt and to one of the many pouches along it. He slowly pulled out an incomplete box with three pieces missing. On the upper, lower, left and right faces of the puzzle box were pyramidal spikes. The entire box was purple when held to light, and gray when held in darkness. On the front face, a small upside-down T showed where the pieces were missing. He slid the three pieces into the box and it began to glow.

Where he slid in the two boxes on the lower end of the "T", an eye slowly started to open and stopped about half way before shooting open, realizing it was completed. The iris of the eye was purple while the pupil was swirling blackness. Designs slowly began to etch themselves into the box's surface – mazes on the right side, flatness on the top, swirls in the back, overlapping circles on the bottom, sinister lines on the left and many different on the face with the eye. The spikes also began to design themselves, two on the sides pointing inwards, the two others outward. The eye darted around frantically before looking up at Alexander, the lids narrowing.

_Open me! Open me! Open me! Then only will you know peace! _A voice inside of Alexander's head began to shout at him to open the box. His own eyes under the goggles stared at the box suspiciously. _There is no sharp distinction between the real and the unreal. You resist. You cling to your life as if it actually matters. You will learn. Open me, find the truth inside. Open me!_

The voice continued to yell out, mercilessly assaulting Alexander's mind with words and commands.

_Do you dream while you sleep or is it an escape from the horrors of reality? All places, all things have souls. All souls can be devoured._ The box was not content to stop with the commands unless it was opened. Alexander, though not usually a man to give into fear, was a man to give into curiosity. He began to play with the box, shifting pieces where and there, splitting the eye in half only to have it reform on two new squares to continue looking at him.

Alexander's hands, as if he had done this a thousand times, began to move along the box quickly, expertly. He flipped some latches, moved what pieces he could around those which had been locked into place, twisted the spikes a couple of times and pulled on them, only revealing more of their shape, only to twist them and lock them back into place.

Suddenly, the eye shot back open and laughter erupted in Alexander's head. _You've done it! You've done it! Now, open me! OPEN ME! _He quickly jammed his thumb into the eye and tossed the box on the ground, stepping backwards. The face had the eye slowly began to open in four manners, folding back and revealing a deep blackness within the empty box.

"Time to play!" Said a twisted, almost childish voice within the box. A black mass suddenly shot out of the darkness of the box, flying into the sky and cackling all the way up into the heavens. It disappeared in the clouds that hung low over the terrain, leaving the stricken man to stare up in surprise.

"Oh shit," was all that he could manage to say. Not about to let his hard work go to waste, he quickly grabbed the puzzle box, shut it again and broke into a full run back towards the camp.


	2. Avatar of an Ancient?

**The Puzzle Box**

Part Two: "Avatar of an Ancient?"

"So, let me get this straight…" said that familiar youthful voice. He was leaning against the tree, sitting down. His legs were spread out and hands were behind his head. In his lips was a white cigarette which was recently lit. "You opened a box. And something came out of it. And, now, you're scared?"

"Not scared!" Alexander retorted. "I'm just a bit… Worried. What if it goes to Stormwind, huh? What if it goes after Sara? Or Kael? Or the others?"

"Well, then we'll just have to go put it back in the box, right?" He laughed at that, sliding the white roll to the corner of his mouth to let out a torrent of smoke out of the other.

"I doubt it works like that." Alexander gave a sigh, shaking his head. His right hand reached up to grab the goggles over his eyes and slowly pulled them from them and to his forehead. He slowly opened his eyes, to show the gently glowing azure irises and the creamy white pupils.

"You know, I warned you," The first gave a laugh at that; reaching up to remove the cigarette from his lips so it would not fall into the snow. "I told you not to do it, that you had no idea what you were doing. You dumbass." He laughed once more before returning the half-burned out bud to his lips and taking a long drag from it."

"Shut up." Alexander clicked his tongue in annoyance, kicking back and throwing the snow back at his companion, who did not seem to mind as it hit his leg.

"Hey!" A woman's voice sounded from beyond before the form it belonged to came from behind another tree nearby. Her skin was pale with a purplish hue and silver hair flowing down to the middle of her back. He pointed ears twitched and listened for anything that might cause them a disturbance.

"Seree said to get back to camp. We're all packed up and ready to move out. We'll be back at Valiance Keep in two or three days."

With that, the two beside the first tree moved towards the woman and the trio began to walk back to their companions.

Far to the south on another continent, the night had already overcome the day. The city of Stormwind rested peacefully in the forests of Elwynn near the middle of the continent of the Eastern Kingdoms. The cobblestone streets were lined with lamps several feet high upon metal poles.

In the Cathedral Square, behind the cathedral itself, a small park and graveyard met together and created a rather peaceful atmosphere of the respected dead, the clean, swirling waters and beautiful foliage. Many people often walked along these paths quite often, regardless of the time of day.

However, tonight, was odd; only one woman walked along this path, moving along the side of the cathedral. She was a human who looked to be in her late twenties. Her form suggested that she was quite a fighter, but she only wore a simple outfit of a blouse, leggings and travelling boots.

A sound behind her caused her to stop and turn around quickly. In an instant, she was down on one knee with a knife drawn from one of her boots. Her eyes scanned around, replacing the knife and standing back up as she found nothing. As she turned, she was stopped by something unfamiliar.

A figure of pure blackness stood before her with a lengthy purple sword in one hand and a mirror in the other. The eyes were perfectly round and white with the outline of a toothy grin of the same perfect white.

"Play?" The being did not even open its mouth to speak, the form of it shaking in laughter.

"Play, huh?" The woman's left eyebrow perked up and she raised her free hand to cover her mouth as she laughed to herself. "I'm sorry, but I don't have time to play." The being continued to grin and laugh. The laughter began to show a sign of insanity as it increased in volume.

"Play!" The hand holding the mirror jerked up and the image of the moon reflected off of it. In a moment, the candles inside their lamps, burning out suddenly and clouds beginning to cover the moon through the reflection. The woman turned around to make a break for it, but was stopped by a mirror-image of the being holding up the mirror. Four more shades popped up around her, allowing no room for escape.

"Play with me!" The shadows didn't move their lips to speak and sounded as if only one voice had actually spoken. Without warning, all of them seemed to lunge for her, bringing up their swords to slice down and cut her into six different segments. She was lucky enough to escape from this attack by diving between one of the gaps, but not so lucky to escape from the second.

The swords suddenly shifted, slashing back behind their wielders. Instead of being mutilated, she was cut with only one blade across the waist. She had no time to recover, the blade sweeping down low to slice up her body, perfectly vertical and causing her to fly back, landing on the hard cobblestones of the path. Blood gushed from her cross-shaped wounds, which seemed to widen and almost cause her to split in the fashion with which she had been cut.

The extra silhouettes had disappeared only a moment before, causing just the one to step up to the dying woman and look down at her. The thing was saddened, its wide grin having turned upside down in disappointment.

"I broke it…" Its voice gave way to its sadness, a few depressed whimpers coming from its saddened expression. It slowly turned and hung its head low, letting the sword scrape behind the stone as he began walking away. It melded into the darkness to be unseen until it had found a new patron.

This phenomenon happened again and again, five nights a week for another two months. People had escaped, of course, but only those with actual magical potential. In total, only about thirty people died – twenty-nine actually having no magical power and one being a mage, who was foolishly drunk at the time. By the order of King Varian Wrynn, Martial Law was now in effect. The King's personal guards were not keeping the streets guarded, SI:7 was checking backgrounds and suspicious characters and the Gnews had made it clear that people need to stay inside at dark.

Crime syndicates within the city were even victims. They attempted to make sure they traveled in packs, but that proved to be a terrible solution, leading to sixteen of the total death toll. While this thing had killed anything that had crossed it, it was also reducing the crime of the city a great deal. News of this ordeal spread quickly throughout the Alliance, and sightings began to pop up everywhere on the Eastern Kingdoms – none of them proven to be the actual killer, and just some people looking for excuses to kill innocents.

Finger pointing began in the inner councils of the city; the Head Bishop pointed his fingers at the Slaughtered Lamb, a bar notorious for being home to those who practiced demonology. They blamed the priests, as many of them had turned to the shadows to spread pestilence more than they. In turn, they blamed the recently added Worgen – as a race – citing that the being acted like one of them based on victim testimonies, and on how the victims were killed. Even the Knights of the Ebon Blade were blamed, but there was nothing to back it, as they had been keeping to themselves mostly as of late.

All the while, killings kept happening. People were arrested and some even sentenced to death for these crimes – none of which were rightfully proven as guilty. During the day, weapon and armor shops boomed with business as people were foolish enough to try and hunt the thing with hopes of great rewards. No bounty was ever placed officially, but the syndicates, as stated before, were losing men and wanted revenge. Bounty-hunters and mercenaries were hired, hunting down this monster.

Little did ANYONE know what this thing was, or what it was capable of…


End file.
